The present invention relates to syringe assemblies, to methods of forming syringe assemblies and to adapters for forming syringe assemblies.
The following information is provided to assist the reader to understand the invention disclosed below and the environment in which it will typically be used. The terms used herein are not intended to be limited to any particular narrow interpretation unless clearly stated otherwise in this document. References set forth herein may facilitate understanding of the present invention or the background of the present invention. The disclosure of all references cited herein are incorporated by reference.
Injector-actuated syringes and powered injectors are used in medical procedures including, but not limited to, therapeutic drug delivery and diagnostic drug delivery (for example, in angiography, computed tomography, ultrasound, NMR/MRI etc.). U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,736, for example, discloses an injector and syringe for injecting fluid into the vascular system of a human being or an animal. Typically, such injectors include a drive member such as a piston that connects to and imparts motion to a syringe plunger. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,980, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses an angiographic injector and syringe wherein the drive member of the injector can be connected to, or disconnected from, the syringe plunger at any point along the travel path of the plunger via a releasable mechanism. A front-loading syringe and injector system is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,858, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Various types of syringe interfaces are provided on injectors to place a syringe in operative connection with the injector. The front-loading injector of U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,858, for example, includes a bayonet syringe interface or mounting mechanism for securing the syringe to the front wall of the injector. In that regard, the syringe of U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,858 includes two generally opposed mounting flanges on a rearward end of the syringe which cooperate with corresponding retaining flanges on the injector thereof to form a bayonet connection.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,861 discloses another front-loading, bayonet-type syringe mounting mechanism in which multiple pairs or sets of syringe mounting flanges cooperate with corresponding pairs of injector retaining flanges to mount a syringe upon an injector. In one embodiment, a first pair of mounting flanges is offset from at least a second pair of mounting flanges. Other types of mounting mechanisms for front-loading syringes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,652,489, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In one embodiment of U.S. Pat. No. 6,652,489, a syringe includes a single engagement flange extending around the entire circumference of the syringe which removably engages a flex ring in the syringe interface of the injector to mount the syringe upon the injector.
In general, the use of specifically designed or unique mounting mechanisms or mounts on front-loading injectors prevents the use of syringes of various other types (that is, syringes having a mounting mechanism not directly compatible with the syringe interface/retaining mechanism of the front-loading injector or syringes without any such mounting mechanism) with the front-loading injectors. Furthermore, syringes designed for manual injection procedures are not directly connectible to injectors. Adapters attachable to front-loading injectors are sometimes used to allow the use of various types of syringes (including, for example, syringes designed for use with other injectors and/or syringes designed for manual injection) with front-loading injectors.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,653 discloses several adapters designed to allow the use of various syringes with a front-loading injector. Another adapter for allowing use of various syringes with a front-loading injector is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 09-122234. Other adapters are disclosed, for example, in PCT Publication No. WO 01/08727 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,336,913, 6,488,661, 6,676,634, 6,716,195, 6,726,657, 6,743,205, 7,0294,58, 7,273,477, and 7,497,843, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In general, such adapters include an injector interface to place the adapter in operative connection with the injector. The injector interface is typically designed to include a mounting mechanism similar to or the same as the mounting mechanism associated with syringes designed to be used in connection with the injector. The adapters also include a syringe interface to connect the syringe (which is not designed to be connected directly to the injector) to the adapter. A plunger adapter or plunger extension may also be provided to allow the injector piston to form an operative connection with the syringe. Currently available adapters are typically designed to connect to the injector to modify the syringe interface of the injector. Although such adapters are often referred to as “syringe adapters”, they are more accurately defined to as “injector adapters” or “injector interface adapters.” Once such an adapter is in place on the injector, any number of syringes can be used (serially) therewith.
Although a number of syringe interfaces and adapters are currently available, it remains desirable to develop improved syringe assemblies and syringe interfaces and adapters for use with syringes assemblies of various types.